It is often necessary or desirable to average multiple images taken from a same object to obtain an averaged image with improve quality, such as with reduced noise. Conventional techniques for averaging image frames do not provide good or satisfactory results in some situations such as when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is very low and the imaged object moves while the different image frames are taken. For example, in vivo fluorescent images of a mouse retina can be obtained based on a technique using the green fluorescence protein (GFP) transgenic mouse model with a glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) promoter, referred to as the GFAP-GFP imaging technique. However, the SNR in GFAP-GFP images of a mouse retina is typically very low and these images are difficult to analyze using conventional techniques.
It is thus desirable to provide an improved method for averaging image frames where the SNR is low and there is motional displacement between different frames.